Alpha-gal Safe EASY Slow Cooker Pasta Sauce
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Ah pasta. How I used to love a big plate of heaping fettuccine. But on top of having Alpha-gal syndrome, I developed a bunch of other food allergies. That means not only do I have to avoid mammal, wheat is out, too. Suffice it to say, it hasn’t been easy to find a pasta that’s actually really good and Paleo-friendly. Of course I have to be a label detective, and organic tomato sauces in the store can get pricey. Well, thanks to ground chicken, my husband’s green thumb and a recent discovery in the frozen food aisle, I’m enjoying pasta again. Check out my super easy slow cooker tomato sauce recipe and whip a batch for yourself, and if you want something on the table a little faster you can check out my “takes minutes, but skip the cheese (I could it eat back then) recipe” here.
Easy Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce – Ingredients
- Slow cooker
- Two glass bowls (more below on this)
- Tomatoes – peeled, seeded and diced. Note: I used 8 pretty good-sized tomatoes from our garden. Some people use plum, and I think really any kind you use is fine (if you use plum tomatoes, I’d get ten of them)
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil (dried is okay, too)
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano (dried is okay, too)
- 1/4 cup olive oil (I use La Riojana)
- Sea salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- A pinch of crushed red pepper (optional)
- 3-4 garlic cloves, crushed (more if you really love garlic)
- 1/2 cup chopped portobello mushrooms (optional)
- 1 pound of ground chicken (ground turkey works; whatever Alpha-gal safe ‘meat’ you want to use is great)
- 1 box of Capello’s Fettuccine – Amazon only sells it in bulk. You can get one box from Whole Foods or your local natural food store. It’s in the freezer section, and they have gnocchi and lasagna noodles, too
Easy Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce – Directions
Cut a cross into the bottoms of your tomatoes. Grab your two glass bowls. I fill my tea kettle, boil the water in it and once it whistles, pour the hot water into one of the glass bowls. I fill the other bowl with cold water. Dip each tomato for 10-20 seconds into the hot water. Lift it out with a spoon and place into the cold water. The peels will come right off. Quarter the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds with a small spoon, then dice:
Easy Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce – Get to Cooking
Once all of the tomatoes are diced, crush them in the slow cooker (I use a potato masher)and put in the herbs, garlic, olive oil, salt, black pepper and crushed red pepper (if you’re using it). Stir everything up really well.
Set your slow cooker to low and let it simmer – the longer the better. I did about 12 hours. I think 15 would be fine, too. It allows all the flavors to mix really well.
When it gets close to being down, brown your ground chicken, add mushrooms in once chicken is thoroughly cooked. Then mix the chicken and mushrooms in with the sauce. The Cappello’s pasta takes about 90 seconds to cook, so make it when you’re ready to eat and keep a close watch on it! Drain it as soon as it is done boiling.
Scoop sauce over pasta, and enjoy!